Green Bay - History has shown that Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy doesn't make rash decisions when it comes to his coaching staff.

So, even though he indicated Tuesday it was likely defensive coordinator Dom Capers would be back next season, it would be a mistake to assume it was a done deal.

McCarthy and Capers are scheduled to meet much of the day Wednesday at which time they'll go over the performance of the defense this season and probably discuss Capers' future with the team. It's possible no decision will be made on his status at that time.

When McCarthy made a change after the 2008 season, firing Bob Sanders, he took almost a week to make that decision. On Dec. 31, three days after the season ended, he addressed reporters and said he was still in the process of evaluating his staff and had not made a decision on Sanders' future.

On Jan. 4, news leaked out that he had fired Sanders.

McCarthy has a much tougher decision with Capers, who helped him win a Super Bowl two years ago but has been in charge of a defense that has been pummeled in the playoffs three out of the last four years. The 45-31 defeat to the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night, in which the defense gave up 579 yards, including an NFL-record 181 quarterback rushing yards, has left a stain on Capers' distinguished résumé.

"There's a lot to look at, like there is every single year," McCarthy said during his season-ending news conference Tuesday. "It's important for us as a coaching staff and particularly the leadership part of our football ops to look at everything, like we always do.

"Take the emotion out of it and make the right decisions as we move forward."

McCarthy said he had "confidence" that Capers would be back next season, but it was pretty obvious that McCarthy still had some evaluating to do before offering contracts to his staff, Capers included. In the past, McCarthy has met with his coordinators the week after the season ended and then with his assistants after that.

Part of the discussion with Capers might be some of the thoughts McCarthy got from his players, each of whom had a private meeting with him before leaving for the off-season. There's little doubt McCarthy listened to what the players said to see if there were any hints that Capers was no longer the man for the job.

"I've done this long enough now that I feel I have a pretty good filter to sort out what's real and what's emotion," McCarthy said. "That's really what this process is about. I can promise you as I've always done, there will be a lot of things that will come out of the meetings in the next couple weeks that will be applied to the way we train our football team next year.

"We don't ever try to stay the same; we're very open to doing things a better way. I have a lot of confidence in the way we go about our business. We will improve."

If he decided to make a change, McCarthy has several prospects on his own staff for a replacement or he could go outside. It would be hard to imagine him abandoning the 3-4 defense after so much has been invested in personnel who fit that scheme.

Capers, who along with the other assistant coaches met with reporters after McCarthy's news conference, said he was extremely disappointed in the way the season ended and planned to study in the off-season ways to make sure the Packers have a better plan against the 49ers and teams who run similar offenses.

He talked specifics of the game, explaining how it was quarterback Colin Kaepernick's scrambling and not his designed runs out of the 49ers' read-option scheme that was the Packers' undoing. He refuted claims that he did not respond to what the 49ers were doing and said he tried several different ways to shut down the young quarterback.

He made it clear that he didn't think this loss was an indication of where the defense stands heading into what would be his fifth year with the Packers. He was frank about how big of a challenge it was playing with five rookie regulars, but he did not say talent was an issue.

"It didn't look that way the other night but I've seen us make great strides, and I think with the number of young people we've got that we can move forward with this group," Capers said. "Obviously, you always want to add a few things here or there, but what I hope is that game's not a total evaluation of what this group has done this year, because I think there were some very good things that were done."

Under Capers, the defense improved from 32nd overall last season to 11th this season and finished 11th in points allowed, ninth in interceptions and fourth in sacks. On the downside, it finished 15th in third-down efficiency, 26th in yards allowed per carry and 14th in first downs allowed per game.

The inability of Capers' unit to get it done in the playoffs hangs heaviest over the organization. In the three playoff losses since he has been coordinator, the Packers have given up an average of 44 points and 510 yards.

Capers thinks his job isn't done with this group and he wants to continue.

"I've been around the league a long time," Capers said. "I know those are Mike's decisions. My plans are to be here. Again, I think we've got a young defense that's ascending. All the statistics point to that.

"I feel awful about the way we played because you want to play your best in that game and we didn't. And I accept responsibility for that. That's my job to make sure that we play better."

Capers' assistant coaches said it was unfair to lay blame with him alone for the poor performance. They accepted as much responsibility for not having their players prepared to handle what the 49ers threw at them.

They, like McCarthy, pointed to the fact the 49ers surprised a lot of people with how often they used the read-option with Kaepernick after only showing it a half dozen or so times a game previously.

"I've probably watched that tape 50 times right now," defensive line coach Mike Trgovac said. "Just studying to see what my guys could have done better. I think as position coaches you have to look at your group. Dom's the coordinator, but you have to analyze, 'Where did my guys screw up?'

"We're all in this together. That's a shame (that Capers is getting heat) because we all could have done better."